Abstract:

A method for use in operation of a game apparatus includes obtaining a
time series of samples containing information usable to determine
activity of a plurality of predetermined objects used for controlling the
game apparatus, processing the time series to determine whether one of
the plurality of predetermined objects has been inactive during a game
already in progress, and adding a new player to the game already in
progress in response to a determination that one of the plurality of
predetermined objects is currently active after determining that it was
inactive. A system for use in operation of a game apparatus includes
means for performing these steps.

Claims:

1. A method for use in operation of a game apparatus, comprising the steps
of:obtaining a time series of samples containing information usable to
determine activity of a plurality of predetermined objects used for
controlling the game apparatus;processing the time series to determine
whether one of the plurality of predetermined objects has been inactive
during a game already in progress; andadding a new player to the game
already in progress in response to a determination that one of the
plurality of predetermined objects is currently active after determining
that it was inactive.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein activity of a predetermined
object comprises movement of the predetermined object.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the
time series includes detecting movement of individual ones of the
plurality of predetermined objects.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein movement is detected based on
data received from an inertial sensor incorporated into each of the
predetermined objects.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein movement is detected based on
capturing images of one or more photonically detectable ("PD") elements
mounted on each of the predetermined objects.

6. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein movement is detected based on
acoustical data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the
time series includes capturing an orientation of individual ones of the
plurality of predetermined objects.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of processing
further includes determining an orientation of individual ones of the
plurality of predetermined objects including orientation data relating to
at least one of pitch, yaw or roll and comparing the orientation data to
predetermined orientation data to determine whether one of the plurality
of predetermined objects has been inactive.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of
predetermined objects comprise a plurality of game controllers.

10. A system for use in operation of a game apparatus, comprising:means
for obtaining a time series of samples containing information usable to
determine activity of a plurality of predetermined objects used for
controlling the game apparatus;means for processing the time series to
determine whether one of the plurality of predetermined objects has been
inactive during a game already in progress; andmeans for adding a new
player to the game already in progress in response to a determination
that one of the plurality of predetermined objects is currently active
after determining that it was inactive.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein activity of a predetermined
object comprises movement of the predetermined object.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the mean for obtaining the
time series includes means for detecting movement of individual ones of
the plurality of predetermined objects.

13. The system as claimed in claim 12, wherein movement is detected based
on data received from an inertial sensor incorporated into each of the
predetermined objects.

14. The system as claimed in claim 12, wherein movement is detected based
on capturing images of one or more photonically detectable ("PD")
elements mounted on each of the predetermined objects.

15. The system as claimed in claim 12, wherein movement is detected based
on acoustical data.

16. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the means for obtaining the
time series includes means for capturing an orientation of individual
ones of the plurality of predetermined objects.

17. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the means for processing
further includes means for determining an orientation of individual ones
of the plurality of predetermined objects including orientation data
relating to at least one of pitch, yaw or roll and comparing the
orientation data to predetermined orientation data to determine whether
one of the plurality of predetermined objects has been inactive.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the plurality of
predetermined objects comprise a plurality of game controllers.

Description:

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 11/382,258, filed on May 8, 2006, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
USE IN DETERMINING AN ACTIVITY LEVEL OF A USER IN RELATION TO A SYSTEM",
which is hereby incorporated by reference, and which claims priority to
the following applications as follows:

[0007]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/430,594, to Gary Zalewski and Riley R. Russell,
entitled "Profile Detection", (Attorney Docket SCEA05059US00), filed on
May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by
reference.

[0008]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. ______, to Gary Zalewski and Riley R. Russell,
entitled "Using Audio/Visual Environment To Select Ads On Game Platform",
(Attorney Docket SCEAJP 3.0-003 CIP V), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0009]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/400,997, filed on Apr. 10, 2006, to Larsen and
Chen, entitled "System And Method For Obtaining User Information From
Voices", (Attorney Docket SCEA05040US00), the entire disclosure of which
is incorporated herein by reference.

[0010]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,259, to Gary Zalewski et al., entitled
"Method and apparatus for use in determining lack of user activity in
relation to a system", (Attorney Docket 86327), filed on May 8, 2006, the
entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0011]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,251, to Gary Zalewski et al., entitled
"Hand-held controller having detectable elements for tracking purposes",
(Attorney Docket 86329), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of
which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0012]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,252, entitled "TRACKING DEVICE FOR USE IN
OBTAINING INFORMATION FOR CONTROLLING GAME PROGRAM EXECUTION", (Attorney
Docket SCEA06INRT3), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of which
is incorporated herein by reference.

[0013]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,256, entitled "TRACKING DEVICE WITH SOUND
EMITTER FOR USE IN OBTAINING INFORMATION FOR CONTROLLING GAME PROGRAM
EXECUTION", (Attorney Docket SCEA06ACRA2), filed on May 8, 2006, the
entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0014]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,250, entitled "OBTAINING INPUT FOR
CONTROLLING EXECUTION OF A GAME PROGRAM", (Attorney Docket SCEA06COMB),
filed on May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated
herein by reference.

[0015]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,744, entitled "VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER FRONT
FACE", (Attorney Docket SCEACTR-D3), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0016]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,743, entitled "VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER",
(Attorney Docket SCEACTRL-D2), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0017]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,767, entitled "VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER",
(Attorney Docket SONYP059A), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure
of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0018]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,768, entitled "VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER",
(Attorney Docket SONYP059B), filed on May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure
of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0019]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,763, entitled "ERGONOMIC GAME CONTROLLER
DEVICE WITH LEDS AND OPTICAL PORTS", (Attorney Docket PA3760US), filed on
May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by
reference.

[0020]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,759, entitled "GAME CONTROLLER DEVICE WITH
LEDS AND OPTICAL PORTS", (Attorney Docket PA3761US), filed on May 8,
2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0021]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,765, entitled "DESIGN FOR OPTICAL GAME
CONTROLLER INTERFACE", (Attorney Docket PA3762US), filed on May 8, 2006,
the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0022]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,766, entitled "DUAL GRIP GAME CONTROL DEVICE
WITH LEDS AND OPTICAL PORTS", (Attorney Docket PA3763US), filed on May 8,
2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0023]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,764, entitled "GAME INTERFACE DEVICE WITH
LEDS AND OPTICAL PORTS", (Attorney Docket PA3764US), filed on May 8,
2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0024]This application is also related to co-pending U.S. Design patent
application Ser. No. 29/246,762, entitled "ERGONOMIC GAME INTERFACE
DEVICE WITH LEDS AND OPTICAL PORTS", (Attorney Docket PA3765US), filed on
May 8, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by
reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0025]The present invention generally relates to human-computer
interfacing and specifically to processing multi-channel input for
tracking the user manipulation of one or more controllers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0026]Computer entertainment systems typically include a hand-held
controller, game controller, or other controller. A user or player uses
the controller to send commands or other instructions to the
entertainment system to control a video game or other simulation being
played. For example, the controller may be provided with a manipulator
which is operated by the user, such as a joy stick. The manipulated
variable of the joy stick is converted from an analog value into a
digital value, which is sent to the game machine main frame. The
controller may also be provided with buttons that can be operated by the
user.

[0027]It is with respect to these and other background information factors
that the present invention has evolved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0028]One embodiment provides a method for use in operation of a game
apparatus, comprising the steps of: obtaining a time series of samples
containing information usable to determine activity of a plurality of
predetermined objects used for controlling the game apparatus; processing
the time series to determine whether one of the plurality of
predetermined objects has been inactive during a game already in
progress; and adding a new player to the game already in progress in
response to a determination that one of the plurality of predetermined
objects is currently active after determining that it was inactive.

[0029]Another embodiment provides a system for use in operation of a game
apparatus, comprising: means for obtaining a time series of samples
containing information usable to determine activity of a plurality of
predetermined objects used for controlling the game apparatus; means for
processing the time series to determine whether one of the plurality of
predetermined objects has been inactive during a game already in
progress; and means for adding a new player to the game already in
progress in response to a determination that one of the plurality of
predetermined objects is currently active after determining that it was
inactive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030]The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood by
considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, in which:

[0031]FIG. 1 is a pictorial diagram illustrating a video game system that
operates in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[0032]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a controller made in accordance with
an embodiment of the present invention;

[0033]FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram illustrating an
accelerometer that may be used in a controller according to an embodiment
of the present invention;

[0034]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for mixing various control
inputs according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0035]FIG. 5A is a block diagram of a system according to an embodiment of
the present invention;

[0036]FIG. 5B is a flow diagram of a method according to an embodiment of
the present invention;

[0037]FIG. 5C is a flow diagram of a method according to an embodiment of
the present invention;

[0038]FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a system that may be used to
run, implement and/or execute the methods and techniques shown and
described herein in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

[0039]FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a processor that may be used
to run, implement and/or execute the methods and techniques shown and
described herein in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;
and

[0040]FIGS. 8A and 8B are flow diagrams illustrating methods in accordance
with embodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

[0041]Although the following detailed description contains many specific
details for the purposes of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the
art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following
details are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the exemplary
embodiments of the invention described below are set forth without any
loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed
invention.

[0042]Various embodiments of the methods, apparatus, schemes and systems
described herein provide for the detection, capture and tracking of the
movements, motions and/or manipulations of the entire controller body
itself by the user. The detected movements, motions and/or manipulations
of the entire controller body by the user may be used as additional
commands to control various aspects of the game or other simulation being
played.

[0043]Detecting and tracking a user's manipulations of a game controller
body may be implemented in different ways. For example, an inertial
sensor, such as an accelerometer or gyroscope, an image capture unit,
such as a digital camera, can be used with the computer entertainment
system to detect motions of the hand-held controller body and transfer
them into actions in a game. Examples of tracking a controller with an
inertial sensor are described, e.g., in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/382,033, entitled "SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL
INPUT CONTROL" (Attorney Docket Number SCEA06INRT1), which is
incorporated herein by reference. Examples of tracking a controller using
image capture are described, e.g., in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/382,034, entitled "SCHEME FOR DETECTING AND TRACKING USER MANIPULATION
OF A GAME CONTROLLER BODY" (Attorney Docket Number SCEA05082US00), which
is incorporated herein by reference. In addition, the controller and/or
the user may also be tracked acoustically using a microphone array and
appropriate signal processing. Examples of such acoustic tracking are
described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,721, which is
incorporated herein by reference.

[0044]Acoustic sensing, inertial sensing and image capture can be used
individually or in any combination to detect many different types of
motions of the controller, such as for example up and down movements,
twisting movements, side to side movements, jerking movements, wand-like
motions, plunging motions, etc. Such motions may correspond to various
commands such that the motions are transferred into actions in a game.
Detecting and tracking the user's manipulations of a game controller body
can be used to implement many different types of games, simulations,
etc., that allow the user to, for example, engage in a sword or
lightsaber fight, use a wand to trace the shape of items, engage in many
different types of sporting events, engage in on-screen fights or other
encounters, etc. A game program may configured to track the motion of the
controller and recognize certain pre-recorded gestures from the tracked
motion. Recognition of one or more of these gestures may trigger a change
in the game state.

[0045]In embodiments of the present invention controller path information
obtained from these different sources may be mixed prior to analysis for
gesture recognition. The tracking data from different sources (e.g.,
acoustic, inertial and image capture) may be mixed in a way that improves
the likelihood of recognition of a gesture.

[0046]Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a system 100 that operates
in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As
illustrated, a computer entertainment console 102 may be coupled to a
television or other video display 104 to display the images of the video
game or other simulation thereon. The game or other simulation may be
stored on a DVD, CD, flash memory, USB memory, or other memory media 106
that is inserted into the console 102. A user or player 108 manipulates a
game controller 110 to control the video game or other simulation. As
seen in FIG. 2, the game controller 110 includes an inertial sensor 112
that produces signals in response to the position, motion, orientation or
change in orientation of the game controller 110. In addition to the
inertial sensor, the game controller 110 may include conventional control
input devices, e.g., joysticks 111, buttons 113, R1, L1, and the like.

[0047]During operation, the user 108 physically moves the controller 110.
For example, the controller 110 may be moved in any direction by the user
108, such as up, down, to one side, to the other side, twisted, rolled,
shaken, jerked, plunged, etc. These movements of the controller 110
itself may be detected and captured by the camera 112 by way of tracking
through analysis of signals from the inertial sensor 112 in a manner
described below. Referring again to FIG. 1, the system 100 may optionally
include a camera or other video image capturing device 114, which may be
positioned so that the controller 110 is within the camera's field of
view 116. Analysis of images from the image capturing device 114 may be
used in conjunction with analysis of data from the inertial sensor 112.
As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 110 may optionally be equipped with
light sources such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) 202, 204, 206, 208 to
facilitate tracking by video analysis. These may be mounted to a body of
the controller 110. As used herein, the term "body" meant to describe the
part of the game controller 110 that one would hold by hand (or wear if
it were a wearable game controller).

[0048]Analysis of such video images for the purpose of tracking the
controller 110 are described, e.g., in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/382,034, filed on May 6, 2006, entitled "SCHEME FOR DETECTING AND
TRACKING USER MANIPULATION OF A GAME CONTROLLER BODY" (Attorney Docket
Number 86321 SCEA05082US00), which is incorporated herein by reference.
The console 110 may include an acoustic transducer, such as a microphone
array 118. The controller 110 may also include an acoustic signal
generator 210 (e.g., a speaker) to provide a source of sound to
facilitate acoustic tracking of the controller 110 with the microphone
array 118 and appropriate acoustic signal processing, e.g., as described
in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,724, which is incorporated
herein by reference.

[0049]In general, signals from the inertial sensor 112 are used to
generate position and orientation data for the controller 110. Such data
may be used to calculate many physical aspects of the movement of the
controller 110, such as for example its acceleration and velocity along
any axis, its tilt, pitch, yaw, roll, as well as any telemetry points of
the controller 110. As used herein, telemetry generally refers to remote
measurement and reporting of information of interest to a system or to
the system's designer or operator.

[0050]The ability to detect and track the movements of the controller 110
makes it possible to determine whether any predefined movements of the
controller 110 are performed. That is, certain movement patterns or
gestures of the controller 110 may be predefined and used as input
commands for the game or other simulation. For example, a plunging
downward gesture of the controller 110 may be defined as one command, a
twisting gesture of the controller 110 may be defined as another command,
a shaking gesture of the controller 110 may be defined as another
command, and so on. In this way the manner in which the user 108
physically moves the controller 110 is used as another input for
controlling the game, which provides a more stimulating and entertaining
experience for the user.

[0051]By way of example and without limitation, the inertial sensor 112
may be an accelerometer. FIG. 3 depicts an example of an accelerometer
300 in the form of a simple mass 302 elastically coupled at four points
to a frame 304, e.g., by springs 306, 308, 310, 312. Pitch and roll axes
(indicated by X and Y, respectively) lie in a plane that intersects the
frame. A yaw axis Z is oriented perpendicular to the plane containing the
pitch axis X and the roll axis Y. The frame 304 may be mounted to the
controller 110 in any suitable fashion. As the frame 304 (and the
joystick controller 110) accelerates and/or rotates the mass 302 may
displace relative to the frame 304 and the springs 306, 208, 310, 312 may
elongate or compress in a way that depends on the amount and direction of
translational and/or rotational acceleration and/or the angle of pitch
and/or roll and/or yaw. The displacement and of the mass 302 and/or
compression or elongation of the springs 306, 308, 310, 312 may be
sensed, e.g., with appropriate sensors 314, 316, 318, 320 and converted
to signals that depend in known or determinable way on the amount
acceleration of pitch and/or roll.

[0052]There are a number of different ways to track the position of the
mass and/or or the forces exerted on it, including resistive strain gauge
material, photonic sensors, magnetic sensors, hall-effect devices,
piezoelectric devices, capacitive sensors, and the like. Embodiments of
the invention may include any number and type or combination of types of
sensors. By way of example, and without limitation, the sensors 314, 316,
318, 320 may be gap closing electrodes placed above the mass 302. A
capacitance between the mass and each electrode changes as the position
of the mass changes relative to each electrode. Each electrode may be
connected to a circuit that produce a signal related to the capacitance
(and therefore to the proximity) of the mass 302 relative to the
electrode. In addition, the springs 306, 308, 310, 312 may include
resistive strain gauge sensors that produce signals that are related to
the compression or elongation of the springs.

[0053]In some embodiments, the frame 304 may be gimbal mounted to the
controller 110 so that the accelerometer 300 maintains a fixed
orientation with respect to the pitch and/or roll and/or yaw axes. In
such a manner, the controller axes X, Y, Z may be directly mapped to
corresponding axes in real space without having to take into account a
tilting of the controller axes with respect to the real space coordinate
axes.

[0054]As discussed above, data from inertial, image capture and acoustic
sources may be analyzed to generate a path that tracks the position
and/or orientation of the controller 110. As shown in the block diagram
of FIG. 4 a system 400 according to an embodiment of the invention may
include an inertial analyzer 402, an image analyzer 404 and an acoustic
analyzer 406. Each of these analyzers receives signals from a sensed
environment 401. The analyzers 402, 406, 408 may be implemented in
hardware, in software (or firmware) or some combination of two or more of
these. Each of the analyzers produces tracking information related the
position and/or orientation of an object of interest. By way of example,
the object of interest may be the controller 110 referred to above. The
image analyzer 404 may operate in connection with and to form fields
below and with respect to methods described in U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 11/382,034 (Attorney Docket Number 86321 SCEA05082US00). The
inertial analyzer 402 may operate in connection with and to form fields
below and with respect to methods described in U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 11/382,033, entitled "SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR
THREE-DIMENSIONAL INPUT CONTROL" (Attorney Docket Number SCEA061NRT1).
The acoustic analyzer 406 may operate in connection with and to form
fields below and with respect to methods described in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/381,724.

[0055]The analyzers 402, 404 and 406 may be regarded as being associated
with different channels of inputs of position and/or orientation
information. The Mixer 408 may accept multiple input channels and such
channels may contain sample data characterizing the sensed environment
401, typically from the perspective of the channel. The position and/or
orientation information generated by the inertial analyzer 402, image
analyzer 404 and acoustic analyzer 406 can be coupled into the input of a
mixer 408. The Mixer 408 and analyzers 402, 404, 406 may be queried by a
game software 410 and may be configured to interrupt game software in
response to events. Events may include gesture recognition events,
gearing changes, configuration changes, setting noise levels, setting
sampling rate, changing mapping chains, etc, examples of which are
discussed below. The mixer 408 may operate in connection with and to form
fields below and with respect to methods described herein.

[0056]As discussed above, signals from different input channels, e.g.,
inertial sensors, video images and/or acoustic sensors may be analyzed by
the inertial analyzer 402, image analyzer 404 and acoustic analyzer 406,
respectively, to determine the motion and/or orientation of the
controller 110 during play of a video game according to an inventive
method. Such a method may be implemented as a series of processor
executable program code instructions stored in a processor readable
medium and executed on a digital processor. For example, as depicted in
FIG. 5A, the video game system 100 may include on the console 102 having
the inertial analyzer 402, image analyzer 404 and acoustic analyzer 406
implemented either in hardware or software. By way of example, the
analyzers 402, 404, 406 may be implemented as software instructions
running on a suitable processor unit 502. By way of example, the
processor unit 502 may be a digital processor, e.g., a microprocessor of
a type commonly used in video game consoles. A portion of the
instructions may be stored in a memory 506. Alternatively, the inertial
analyzer 402, image analyzer 404 and acoustic analyzer 406 may be
implemented in hardware, e.g., as an application specific integrated
circuit (ASIC). Such analyzer hardware may be located on the controller
110 or on the console 102 or may be remotely located elsewhere. In
hardware implementations, the analyzers 402, 404, 406 may be programmable
in response to external signals e.g., from the processor 502 or some
other remotely located source, e.g., connected by USB cable, wireless
connection, or over a network.

[0057]The inertial analyzer 402 may include or implement instructions that
analyze the signals generated by the inertial sensor 112 and utilize
information regarding position and/or orientation of the controller 110.
Similarly, the image analyzer 404 may implement instructions that analyze
images captured by the image capture unit 114. In addition, the acoustic
analyzer may implement instructions that analyze images captured by the
microphone array 118. As shown in the flow diagram 510 of FIG. 5B these
signals and/or images may be received by the analyzers 402, 404, 406 as
indicated at block 512. The signals and/or images may be analyzed by the
analyzers 402, 404, 406 to determine inertial tracking information 403,
image tracking information 405 and acoustic tracking information 407
regarding the position and/or orientation of the controller 110 as
indicated at block 514. The tracking information 403, 405, 407 may be
related to one or more degrees of freedom. It is preferred that six
degrees of freedom are tracked to characterize the manipulation of the
controller 110 or other tracked object. Such degrees of freedom may
relate to the controller tilt, yaw, roll and position, velocity or
acceleration along the x, y and z-axis.

[0058]As indicated at block 516, the mixer 408 mixes the inertial
information 403, image information 405 and acoustic information 407 to
generate refined position and/or orientation information 409. By way of
example, the mixer 408 may apply different weights the inertial, image
and acoustic tracking information 403, 405, 407 based on game or
environmental conditions and the take a weighted average. In addition,
the mixer 408 may include its own mixer analyzer 412 that analyzes the
combined position/orientation information and generates its own resulting
"mixer" information that involves combinations of the information
generated by the other analyzers.

[0059]In an embodiment of the present invention the mixer 408 may assign a
distribution value to the tracking information 403, 405, 407 from the
analyzers 402, 404, 406. As noted above, certain sets of input control
data may be averaged. In the present embodiment, however, the input
control data is assigned a value prior to its being averaged whereby the
input control data from some analyzers is of more analytical importance
than from others.

[0060]The mixer 408 may take on a number of functionalities in the context
of the present system including observation, correction, stabilization,
derivation, combination, routing, mixing, reporting, buffering,
interrupting other processes and analysis. Such may be performed with
respect to the tracking information 403, 405, 407 received from one or
more of the analyzers 402, 404, 406. While each of the analyzers 402,
404, 406 may receive and/or derive certain tracking information, the
mixer 408 may be implemented to optimize the use of the received tracking
information 403, 405, 407 and generate refined tracking information 409.

[0061]The analyzers 402, 404, 406 and mixer 408 are preferably configured
to provide tracking information similar output formats. Tracking
information parameters from any analyzer element 402, 404, 406 can be
mapped to a single parameter in an analyzer. Alternatively, the mixer 408
may form tracking information for any of the analyzers 402, 404, 406 by
processing one or more tracking information parameters from one or more
of analyzers 402, 404, 406. The mixer may combine two or more elements of
tracking information of the same parameter type taken from the analyzers
402, 404, 406 and/or perform functions across multiple parameters of
tracking information generated by the analyzers to create a synthetic set
of output having the benefit of being generated from multiple channels of
input.

[0062]The refined tracking information 409 may be utilized during play of
a video game with the system 100 as indicated at block 518. In certain
embodiments, the position and/or orientation information may be used in
relation to gestures made by the user 108 during game play. In some
embodiments the mixer 408 may operate in conjunction with the gesture
recognizer 505 to associate at least one action in a game environment
with one or more user actions from the user (e.g., manipulation of the
controller in space).

[0063]As indicated in the flow diagram 520 of FIG. 5C, a path of the
controller 110 may be tracked using the position and/or orientation
information as indicated at block 522. By way of example, and without
limitation, the path may include a set of points representing a position
of the center of mass of the controller with respect to some system of
coordinates. Each position point may be represented by one or more
coordinates, e.g., X, Y and Z coordinates in a Cartesian coordinate
system. A time may be associated with each point on the path so that both
the shape of the path and the progress of the controller along the path
may be monitored. In addition, each point in the set may have associated
with it data representing an orientation of the controller, e.g., one or
more angles of rotation of the controller about its center of mass.
Furthermore, each point on the path may have associated with it values of
velocity and acceleration of the center of mass of the controller and
rates of angular rotation and angular acceleration of the controller
about its center of mass.

[0064]As indicated at block 524, the tracked path may be compared to one
or more stored paths corresponding to known and/or pre-recorded gestures
508 that are relevant to the context of the video game being played.
Recognizer 505 may be configured to recognize a user or process audio
authenticated gestures, etc. For example, a user may be identified by the
recognizer 505 through a gesture and that a gesture may be specific to a
user. Such a specific gestures may recorded and included among the
pre-recorded gestures 508 stored in memory 506. The recordation process
may optionally store audio generated during recordation of a gesture. The
sensed environment is sampled into a multi-channel analyzer and
processed. The processor may reference gesture models to determine and
authenticate and/or identify a user or objects based on voice or acoustic
patterns and to a high degree of accuracy and performance.

[0065]As indicated in FIG. 5A, data 508 representing the gestures may be
stored in the memory 506. Examples of gestures include, but are not
limited to throwing an object such as a ball, swinging an object such as
a bat or golf club, pumping hand pump, opening or closing a door or
window, turning steering wheel or other vehicle control, martial arts
moves such as punches, sanding movements, wax on wax off, paint the
house, shakes, rattles, rolls, football pitches, turning knob movements,
3D MOUSE movements, scrolling movements, movements with known profiles,
any recordable movement, movements along any vector back and forth i.e.
pump the tire but at some arbitrary orientation in space, movements along
a path, movements having precise stop and start times, any time based
user manipulation that can be recorded, tracked and repeated within the
noise floor, splines, and the like. Each of these gestures may be
pre-recorded from path data and stored as a time-based model. Comparison
of the path and stored gestures may start with an assumption of a steady
state if the path deviates from a steady state the path can be compared
to the stored gestures by a process of elimination. If at block 526 there
is no match, the analyzer 504 may continue tracking the path of the
controller 110 at block 522. If there is a sufficient match between the
path (or a portion thereof) and a stored gesture the state of the game
may be changed as indicated at 528. Changes of state of the game may
include, but are not limited to interrupts, sending control signals,
changing variables, etc.

[0066]Here is one example of this can occur. Upon determining that the
controller 110 has left a steady state the path an analyzer 402, 404,
406, or 412 tracks movement of the controller 110. As long as the path of
the controller 110 complies with a path defined in the stored gesture
models 508, those gestures are possible "hits". If the path of the
controller 110 deviates (within the noise tolerance setting) from any
gesture model 508, that gesture model is removed from the hit list. Each
gesture reference model includes a time-base in which the gesture is
recorded. The analyzer 402, 404, 406, or 412 compares the controller path
data to the stored gestures 508 at the appropriate time index. Occurrence
of a steady state condition resets the clock. When deviating from steady
state (i.e. when movements are tracked outside of the noise threshold)
the hit list is populated with all potential gesture models. The clock is
started and movements of the controller are compared against the hit
list. Again, the comparison is a walk through time. If any gesture in the
hit list reaches the end of the gesture then it is a hit.

[0067]In certain embodiments, the mixer 408 and/or individual analyzers
402, 404, 406, 412 may inform a game program when certain events occur.
Examples of such events include the following:

[0068]INTERRUPT ZERO-ACCELERATION POINT REACHED (X AND/OR Y AN/OR Z AXIS)
In certain game situations the analyzer 504 may notify or interrupt
routine within the game program when acceleration of the controller
changes at the inflection points. For example, the user 108 may use the
controller 110 to control a game avatar representing a quarterback in a
football simulation game. The analyzer 504 may track the controller
(representing the football) via a path generated from signals from the
inertial sensor 112. A particular change in acceleration of the
controller 110 may signal release of the football. At this point, the
analyzer may trigger another routine within the program (e.g., a physics
simulation package) to simulate the trajectory of the football based on
the position, and/or velocity and/or orientation of the controller at the
point of release.

Interrupt New Gesture Recognized

[0069]In addition, the analyzer 502 may be configured by one or more
inputs. Examples of such inputs include, but are not limited to:

SET NOISE LEVEL (X, Y or Z AXIS) The noise level may be a reference
tolerance used when analyzing jitter of the user's hands in the game.SET
SAMPLING RATE. As used herein, the sampling rate may refer to how often
the analyzer 502 samples the signals from the inertial sensor. The
sampling rate may be set to oversample or average the signal.SET GEARING.
As used herein gearing generally refers to the ratio of controller
movements to movements occurring within the game. Examples of such
"gearing" in the context of control of a video game may be found in U.S.
patent application Ser. Nos. 11/382,036, 11/382,041, 11/382,038, and
11/382,040, which are all incorporated herein by reference.SET MAPPING
CHAIN. As used herein, a mapping chain refers to a map of gesture models.
The gesture model maps can be made for a specific input Channel (e.g.,
for path data generated from inertial sensor signals only) or for a
hybrid Channel formed in a mixer unit. Three input Channels may be served
by two or more different Analyzers that are similar to the inertial
analyzer 504. Specifically, these may include: the inertial analyzer 504
as described herein, a video analyzer as described e.g., in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/382,034, entitled SCHEME FOR DETECTING AND
TRACKING USER MANIPULATION OF A GAME CONTROLLER BODY (Attorney Docket
SCEA05082US00), which is incorporated herein by reference, and an
Acoustic Analyzer, e.g., as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/381,721, which is incorporated herein by reference. The Analyzers can
be configured with a mapping chain. Mapping chains can be swapped out by
the game during gameplay as can settings to the Analyzer and to the
Mixer.

[0070]Referring to again to FIG. 5A, block 502, those of skill in the art
will recognize that there are numerous ways to generate signals from the
inertial sensor 112. A few examples, among others have been described
above with respect to FIGS. 3A-3E. Referring to block 504, there are
numerous ways to analyze the sensor signals generated in block 502 to
obtain information relating to the position and/or orientation of the
controller 110. By way of example and without limitation the tracking
information may include, but is not limited to information regarding the
following parameters individually or in any combination:

CONTROLLER ORIENTATION. Orientation of the controller 110 may be expressed
in terms of pitch, roll or yaw angle with respect to some reference
orientation, e.g., in radians). Rates of change of controller orientation
(e.g., angular velocities or angular accelerations) may also be included
in the position and/or orientation information. Where the inertial sensor
112 includes a gyroscopic sensor controller orientation information may
be obtained directly in the form of one or more output values that are
proportional to angles of pitch, roll or yaw.CONTROLLER POSITION (e.g.,
Cartesian coordinates X, Y, Z of the controller 110 in some frame of
reference)

CONTROLLER X-AXIS VELOCITY

CONTROLLER Y-AXIS VELOCITY

CONTROLLER Z-AXIS VELOCITY

CONTROLLER X-AXIS ACCELERATION

CONTROLLER Y-AXIS ACCELERATION

CONTROLLER Z-AXIS ACCELERATION

[0071]It is noted that with respect to position, velocity and acceleration
the position and/or orientation information may be expressed in terms of
coordinate systems other than Cartesian. For example, cylindrical or
spherical coordinates may be used for position, velocity and
acceleration. Acceleration information with respect to the X, Y and Z
axes may be obtained directly from an accelerometer type sensor, e.g., as
described above with respect to FIGS. 3A-3E. The X, Y and Z accelerations
may be integrated with respect to time from some initial instant to
determine changes in X, Y and Z velocities. These velocities may be
computed by adding the velocity changes to known values of the X-, Y-,
and Z-velocities at the initial instant in time. The X, Y and Z
velocities may be integrated with respect to time to determine X-, Y-,
and Z-displacements of the controller. The X-, Y-, and Z-positions may be
determined by adding the displacements to known X-, Y-, and Z-, positions
at the initial instant.

STEADY STATE Y/N--This particular information indicates whether the
controller is in a steady state, which may be defined as any position,
which may be subject to change too. In a preferred embodiment the steady
state position may be one wherein the controller is held in a more or
less level orientation at a height roughly even with a user's waist.TIME
SINCE LAST STEADY STATE generally refers to data related to how long a
period of time has passed since a steady state (as referenced above) was
last detected. That determination of time may, as previously noted, be
calculated in real-time, processor cycles, or sampling periods. The Time
Since Last Steady State data time may be important with regard to
resetting tracking of a controller with regard to an initial point to
ensure accuracy of character or object mapping in a game environment.
This data may also be important with regard to determining available
actions/gestures that might be subsequently executed in a game
environment (both exclusively and inclusively).LAST GESTURE RECOGNIZED
generally refers to the last gesture recognized either by the gesture
recognizer 505 (which may be implemented in hardware or software. The
identification of a last gesture recognized may be important with respect
to the fact that a previous gesture may be related to the possible
gestures that may be subsequently recognized or some other action that
takes place in the game environment.

TIME LAST GESTURE RECOGNIZED

[0072]The above outputs can be sampled at any time by a game program or
software.

[0073]In an embodiment of the present invention the mixer 408 may assign a
distribution value to the tracking information 403, 405, 407 from the
analyzers 402, 404, 406. As noted above, certain sets of input control
data may be averaged. In the present embodiment, however, the input
control data is assigned a value prior to its being averaged whereby the
input control data from some analyzers is of more analytical importance
than from others.

[0074]For example, the mixer 408 may require tracking information related
to acceleration and steady state. The mixer 408 would then receive the
tracking information 403, 405, 407 as described above. The tracking
information may include parameters relating to acceleration and steady
state, e.g., as described above. Prior to averaging the data representing
this information, the mixer 408 may assign distribution values to
tracking information data set 403, 405, 407. For example, the x- and
y-acceleration parameters from the inertial analyzer 402 may be weighted
at a value of 90%. The x- and y-acceleration data from the image analyzer
406, however, may be weighted at only 10%. The acoustic analyzer tracking
information 407 as it pertains to acceleration parameters may be weighted
at zero percent, that is, the data has no value.

[0075]Similarly, the Z-axis tracking information parameters from the
inertial analyzer 402 may be weighted at 10% whereas the image analyzer
Z-axis tracking information may be weighted at 90%. The acoustic analyzer
tracking information 407 may, again, be weighted at 0% value but steady
state tracking information from the acoustic analyzer 406 may be weighted
at 100% with the remaining analyzer tracking information be weighted at
0%.

[0076]After the appropriate distribution weight has been assigned, the
input control data may be averaged in conjunction with that weight to
arrive at a weighted average input control data set that is subsequently
analyzed by the gesture recognizer 505 and associated with a particular
action in the game environment. The values associated may be pre-defined
by the mixer 408 or by a particular game title. The values may also be
the result of the mixer 408 identifying a particular quality of data
coming from the various analyzers and thus making a dynamic adjustment as
is further discussed below. The adjustment may also be the result of
building a historical knowledge base of when particular data is of
particular value in a particular environment and/or in response to the
particularities of a given game title.

[0077]The mixer 408 may be configured to operate dynamically during game
play. For example, as the mixer 408 receives various input control data,
it may recognize that certain data is consistently outside an acceptable
range or quality of data or reflects corrupt data that may be indicative
of a processing error at the related input device.

[0078]Additionally, certain conditions in a real-world environment might
change. For example, natural light in the user's at-home game environment
might be increasing as the morning turns to afternoon causing problems
with image data capture. Further, a neighborhood or household might
become noisier as the day goes on causing problems with audio data
capture. Likewise, if a user has been playing for several hours, their
reflexes may become less sharp thus causing problems with interpretation
of inertial data.

[0079]In these instances, or in any other instance wherein the quality of
a particular form of input control data is in question, the mixer 408 may
dynamically reassign distribution weight to a particular set of data
coming from a particular device such that more or less importance is
given to particular input control data as described above. Similarly, the
game environment may change over the course of the game wherein the needs
of a particular game change thus requiring a reassignment of value or
need for particular input control data.

[0080]Similarly, the mixer 408 may recognize that certain data being
passed on to the gesture recognizer 505 is being processed incorrectly,
slowly, or not at all based on processing errors or feedback data that
may be generated by the gesture recognizer 505. In response to this
feedback or in recognition of these processing difficulties (e.g., while
the image analysis data is within an acceptable range, errors result when
an association is made by the gesture recognizer 505), the mixer 408 may
adjust what input control data it seeks from what analyzer and when, if
at all. The mixer 408 may further require certain analysis and processing
of input control data by the proper analyzer before it is passed to the
mixer 408, which may re-process the data (e.g., average the data) such
that a further layer of assurance is made that the data passed to the
gesture recognizer 505 will be processed effectively and appropriately.

[0081]In some embodiments, the mixer 408 may recognize that certain data
is corrupt, ineffective, or outside a particular variable and may call
upon particular input control data or variable related to that data such
that it may replace incorrect data or properly analyze and calculate
certain data with respect to the necessary variables.

[0082]In general, with respect to a steady state condition mentioned and
discussed above, when nothing happens, the game may optionally include
the ability to not just keep waiting for input. Instead, it may be
positively determined that a user is currently inactive and then generate
a signal for controlling the operation of the game apparatus. For
example, it can suspend operation of the game apparatus when it
determines that a user is currently inactive. For example, the game
apparatus may act upon the first signal to suspend execution of a game.
When there is activity, that may also be positively determined and
signaled to the game. An activity may be an affirmative action, or a
degree of an action. For example, an activity may be swinging an arm, or
an action may be the degree the arm is pulled back before swinging it.
However, this is just one example.

[0083]In some embodiments, the system includes the ability to determine a
steady state condition and/or to detect an exit from a steady state
condition. For example, one embodiment includes a method for use in
operation of a game apparatus for determining a lack of user activity in
relation to the game apparatus. Referring to FIG. 8A, there is
illustrated a method 800 for use in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention. The method 800 may be executed and performed by many
different types of systems and devices, such as for example entertainment
systems and consoles, computers, consumer electronics device, etc. An
example of a system that may be used to perform the method 800 will be
described below.

[0084]The method 800 begins in step 802 which includes obtaining a time
series of samples containing information usable to determine activity of
a user in relation to a predetermined object. In step 804 the time series
is processed to determine whether the user is currently inactive in
relation to the predetermined object. And in step 806, when the step of
processing the time series determines that the user is currently
inactive, providing a first signal to the game apparatus for use in
controlling the operation of the game apparatus. In some embodiments the
predetermined object may comprise a controller such as a game controller
or similar device, a remote, a wand device, a mouse or pointing device,
or any other device. Thus, it can be determined that a particular
user-manipulable object such as the controller is in a steady state.

[0085]In some embodiments it can be determined that a particular
user-manipulable object among a plurality of objects is in the steady
state. For example, the step of processing the time series may be
performed with respect to the activity of individual ones of a plurality
of users in relation to individual ones of a plurality of the
predetermined objects to identify one or more individual users of the
plurality of users who is currently inactive. Furthermore, the step of
providing the first signal may include identifying a particular user of
the plurality of users who is currently inactive.

[0086]Some embodiments address the return from steady state. For example,
this may be addressed by determining that there is activity with respect
to a particular user-manipulable object, such as when a new player joins
a game already in progress. In this scenario, for example, the step of
processing the time series may determine whether the user is currently
active in relation to the predetermined object. A second signal may be
provided to the game apparatus for use in controlling the operation of
the game apparatus when the step of processing the time series determines
that the user is currently active directly after determining that the
user is inactive. The step of processing the time series may be performed
with respect to the activity of individual ones of a plurality of users
in relation to individual ones of a plurality of the predetermined
objects to identify one or more individual users of the plurality of
users who is currently active. Furthermore, the step of providing the
second signal may include identifying a particular user of the plurality
of users who is currently active. When the new player is identified as a
particular user, a profile of the new player may also be identified and
loaded

[0087]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may
determine that the user is currently inactive so long as the activity of
the user does not exceed a threshold. The threshold may be modified
during operation of the game apparatus and processing the time series to
determine whether the activity of the user exceeds the modified
threshold. The first signal may be acted upon by the game apparatus to
suspend execution of a game.

[0088]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may be
performed with respect to the activity of individual ones of a plurality
of users in relation to individual ones of a plurality of the
predetermined objects to identify one or more individual users of the
plurality of users who is currently inactive. The step of providing the
first signal may include identifying a particular user of the plurality
of users who is currently inactive.

[0089]In some embodiments, a step of providing a second signal may be
included when the step of processing determines that all of a
predetermined set of the plurality of users are currently inactive. The
time series may include information relating to at least one of a
movement of the predetermined object, a position of the predetermined
object, an attitude of the predetermined object, or an acoustic level in
a vicinity of the predetermined object. The step of obtaining the time
series may include obtaining information from an image capture device in
a vicinity of a screen upon which a progress of a game is displayable by
the game apparatus.

[0090]In some embodiments, the predetermined object may include a body and
at least one photonically detectable ("PD") element assembled with the
body. The PD element may be distinguishable from the body by at least one
of brightness, color, texture, pattern, reflectivity or illumination
intensity. The step of obtaining the time series may include obtaining
information representative of a position of the at least one PD element
within an image captured by the image capture device. The at least one PD
element may include a light source. The at least one PD element may
include a light emitting diode ("LED").

[0091]In some embodiments, the predetermined object may include a game
controller including the body, the body having a forward section to be
oriented towards the screen when the progress of the game is displayed
upon the screen. The game controller may include at least one input
device assembled with the body, the input device being manipulable by a
user to register an input from the user. The step of obtaining the time
series of samples may include capturing a position of the PD element
within the image by the image capture device when the forward section of
the game controller is oriented at least partly towards the screen. The
step of processing the time series may include determining that the user
is currently inactive when movement of the position of the PD element
within the image over a predetermined interval of time does not exceed a
threshold.

[0092]In some embodiments, the game controller may include at least two PD
elements, wherein the step of obtaining the time series includes
capturing an orientation of the game controller relative to an x-axis of
a plane of the image and a y-axis of the plane of the image. The game
controller may include three PD elements defining a triangle. The step of
obtaining the time series may include capturing an orientation of the
game controller further in relation to a z-axis, the z-axis being
perpendicular to the plane of the image.

[0093]In some embodiments, the game controller may include at least four
PD elements defining a rectangle. The step of obtaining the time series
may include capturing an orientation of the game controller further in
relation to a z-axis, the z-axis being perpendicular to the plane of the
image.

[0094]In some embodiments, the step of processing may further include
determining an orientation of the game controller including orientation
data relating to at least one of pitch, yaw or roll and comparing the
orientation data to predetermined orientation data to determine whether
the user is currently active. The orientation data may relate to pitch,
yaw and roll of the game controller.

[0095]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an inertial sensor incorporated
in the predetermined object and the step of processing the time series
includes processing the time series to determine that a movement of the
predetermined object does not exceed a threshold within a predetermined
interval of time. The inertial sensor may include at least one of an
accelerometer, a gyroscope or a laser gyroscope. The step of obtaining
the time series may include obtaining information usable to determine
acceleration of the predetermined object and the step of processing the
time series includes determining an acceleration of the predetermined
object. The step of processing the time series may include determining a
velocity of the predetermined object by integrating acceleration values
obtained from the time series over an interval of time. The step of
processing the time series may include determining a displacement of the
predetermined object by first integrating acceleration values obtained
from the time series over an interval of time and integrating the result
of the first integrating over the interval of time.

[0096]In some embodiments, the predetermined object may include a game
controller having a body, the inertial sensor being mounted to the body,
and the game controller including at least one user input device
assembled with the body. The user input device may be manipulable by a
user to register an input from the user.

[0097]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an acoustic transducer in the
vicinity of the user manipulable object and the step of processing the
time series may include determining that a user is currently inactive
when the information obtained by the acoustic transducer does not satisfy
a predetermined criterion.

[0098]In some embodiments, in the displaying a progress of a game upon a
screen, the acoustic information may be obtained by an acoustic
transducer located in a vicinity of the screen.

[0099]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling acoustic information obtained by an acoustic transducer
in the vicinity of the user-manipulable object and the step of processing
the time series includes determining that a particular user of the
plurality of users is currently inactive when the information obtained by
the acoustic transducer does not satisfy a predetermined criterion
specific to the particular user.

[0100]In some embodiments, the predetermined criterion may include at
least one criterion selected from the group consisting of pitch, audio
pulse frequency, audio pulse shape, audio pulse duty cycle, beat
frequency, spectral signature including a spectral content characteristic
of a distinctive sound, spectral signature characteristic of a particular
user's voice, a time-varying signature characteristic of a string of one
or more phonemes concatenated together and recognizable through speech
recognition.

[0101]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may
determine whether the user is currently active in relation to the
predetermined object, the method further comprising providing a second
signal to the game apparatus for use in controlling the operation of the
game apparatus when the step of processing the time series determines
that the user is currently active directly after determining that the
user is inactive.

[0102]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may
determine that the user is currently active when the activity of the user
exceeds a threshold. The threshold may be modified during operation of
the game apparatus and processing the time series to determine whether
the activity of the user exceeds the modified threshold.

[0103]In some embodiments, the second signal may be acted upon by the game
apparatus to resume execution of a game.

[0104]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may be
performed with respect to the activity of individual ones of a plurality
of users in relation to individual ones of a plurality of the
predetermined objects to identify one or more individual users of the
plurality of users who is currently active, and the step of providing the
second signal includes identifying a particular user of the plurality of
users who is currently active.

[0105]In some embodiments, profiles may be stored corresponding to
respective users prior to the step of processing the time series and in
response to the second signal, accessing a previously stored one of the
profiles which corresponds to the particular user identified by the
second signal and utilizing profile information obtained from the
accessed profile to control execution of the game apparatus.

[0106]In some embodiments, profiles may be stored corresponding to
respective users prior to the step of processing the time series and in
response to the second signal. A previously stored one of the profiles
which corresponds to the particular user identified by the second signal
may be accessed and utilized to obtained from the accessed profile to
control execution of the game apparatus.

[0107]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may be
performed to determine activity with respect to individual ones of a
plurality of the predetermined objects. The step of providing the second
signal may include identifying a particular one of the plurality of
predetermined objects for which the user of the particular predetermined
object is currently active.

[0108]In some embodiments, profiles may be stored corresponding to
particular users prior to the step of processing the time series, the
particular user of the particular predetermined object may be identified,
and a previously stored one of the profiles which corresponds to the
particular identified user may be accessed, and profile information
obtained from the accessed profile may be used to control execution of
the game apparatus.

[0109]In some embodiments, the step of identifying the particular user may
include processing the time series to obtain gesture information
regarding a gesture including a series of movements performed by the user
and comparing the gesture information to a plurality of stored gesture
maps corresponding to particular users, and identifying the particular
user whose gesture map matches the gesture information.

[0110]In some embodiments, at least some of the stored gesture maps may be
unique to particular ones of the users. At least some of the stored
gesture maps may be stored from gesture information obtained by
processing the time series for a gesture performed by the user. At least
some of the stored gesture maps may be selectable by particular users
without having to process the time series for a gesture performed by the
particular users.

[0111]In some embodiments, the time series may include information
relating to at least one of a movement of the predetermined object, a
position of the predetermined object, an attitude of the predetermined
object, or an acoustic level in a vicinity of the predetermined object.
The predetermined object may include a game controller including a body,
the body having a forward section to be oriented towards the screen when
the progress of the game is displayed upon the screen, the game
controller including at least one input device assembled with the body,
the input device being manipulable by a user to register an input from
the user. The step of obtaining the time series of samples may include
capturing a position of the PD element within the image by the image
capture device when the forward section of the game controller is
oriented at least partly towards the screen. The step of processing the
time series may include determining that the user is currently active
when movement of the position of the PD element within the image over a
predetermined interval of time does not exceed a threshold.

[0112]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an inertial sensor incorporated
in the predetermined object and the step of processing the time series
includes processing the time series to determine that a movement of the
predetermined object exceeds a threshold within a predetermined interval
of time.

[0113]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an acoustic transducer in the
vicinity of the user manipulable object and the step of processing the
time series includes determining that a user is currently active when the
information obtained by the acoustic transducer satisfies a predetermined
criterion.

[0114]In some embodiments, acoustic information may be stored prior to the
step of obtaining the time series. The step of identifying the particular
user may include processing acoustic information obtained by an acoustic
transducer in relation to the stored acoustic information when the step
of processing determines current activity with respect to a particular
predetermined object. The stored acoustic information may relate to at
least one of an acoustic characteristic of voiced utterances or a meaning
of voiced utterances and the acoustic information obtained by the
acoustic transducer includes information obtained by transducing an
utterance.

[0115]Referring to FIG. 8B, there is illustrated a method 820 for use in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment
provides a method for use in operation of a game apparatus for
determining a lack of user activity in relation to the game apparatus.
The method may include step 822 of obtaining a time series of samples
containing information usable to determine an activity level of a user of
the game apparatus. Step 824 may include processing the time series to
determine whether the user is currently inactive. And in step 826, when
the step of processing the time series determines that the user is
currently inactive, providing a first signal to the game apparatus for
use in controlling the operation of the game apparatus. Determining an
activity level of a user may be performed in many different ways. For
example, it may be determined by sensing a user walking into a room, or
sensing a user's presence, of sensing hands clapping, or sensing an
activity level in some other way, etc. Thus, by determining that there is
not sufficient movement criterion, or change criterion etc. of the user
as recorded by a sensor, which may be incorporated in an article worn by
the user, a steady state condition may be determined.

[0116]In some embodiments, when a system goes out of steady state it may
sniff for a user profile or a gesture customized to a user. A new player
may be added to a game based on a profile. A system may detect steady
state in many different ways. And a system may detect activity of a user
based upon auditory patterns, video patterns or inertial patters, etc.,
or by detecting a profile or gesture of a user.

[0117]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may
determine that the user is currently inactive so long as the activity of
the user does not exceed a threshold. The threshold may be modified
during the step of processing the time series. The first signal may be
acted upon by the game apparatus to suspend execution of a game.

[0118]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series of
samples may be performed with respect to the activity of individual ones
of a plurality of users to identify one or more individual users of the
plurality of users who is currently inactive, and the step of providing
the first signal may include identifying a particular user of the
plurality of users who is currently inactive.

[0119]In some embodiments, the a step of providing a second signal to the
game apparatus may be included when the step of processing determines
that all of a predetermined set of the plurality of users are currently
inactive.

[0120]In some embodiments, the time series of samples may include
information relating to at least one of a movement of at least a portion
of the user's body, a position of the user's body, an orientation of at
least a portion of the user's body, or an acoustic level in a vicinity of
a screen upon which a progress of a game is displayable by the game
apparatus.

[0121]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include obtaining information from an image capture device in a vicinity
of a screen upon which a progress of a game is displayable by the game
apparatus. The step of obtaining the time series may include obtaining
information representative of a position of the at least one photonically
detectable ("PD") element within an image captured by the image capture
device. The PD element may be included in an article worn by the user.
The PD element may be distinctive by at least one of brightness, color,
texture, pattern, reflectivity or illumination intensity. The step of
processing may determine that the user is currently inactive when a
change in the position of the at least one PD element over an interval of
time fails to exceed a predetermined threshold.

[0122]In some embodiments, the at least one PD element may include a light
source. The at least one PD element may include a light emitting diode
("LED"). The article may include at least two PD elements. The step of
obtaining the time series may include capturing an orientation of the
article relative to an x-axis of a plane of the image and a y-axis of the
plane of the image.

[0123]In some embodiments, the article may include three PD elements
defining a triangle. The step of obtaining the time series may include
capturing an orientation of the game controller further in relation to a
z-axis, the z-axis being perpendicular to the plane of the image.

[0124]In some embodiments, the article may include at least four PD
elements defining a rectangle. The step of obtaining the time series may
include capturing an orientation of the game controller further in
relation to a z-axis, the z-axis being perpendicular to the plane of the
image.

[0125]In some embodiments, the step of processing may further include
determining an orientation of the article including orientation data
relating to at least one of pitch, yaw or roll and comparing the
orientation data to predetermined orientation data to determine whether
the user is currently active. The orientation data may relate to pitch,
yaw and roll of the article.

[0126]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an inertial sensor incorporated
in an article worn by the user and the step of processing the time series
may include processing the time series to determine that a movement of
the predetermined object does not exceed a threshold within a
predetermined interval of time. The inertial sensor may include at least
one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope or a laser gyroscope.

[0127]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include obtaining information usable to determine acceleration of the
article and the step of processing the time series may include
determining an acceleration of the article. The step of processing the
time series may include determining a velocity of the article by
integrating acceleration values obtained from the time series over an
interval of time, and determining that the user is currently inactive
when the velocity determined by the processing does not exceed a
threshold velocity value.

[0128]In some embodiments, the step of processing the time series may
include determining a displacement of the article by first integrating
acceleration values obtained from the time series over an interval of
time and integrating the result of the first integrating over the
interval of time, and determining that the user is currently inactive
when the displacement determined by the processing does not exceed a
threshold displacement value.

[0129]In some embodiments, the step of obtaining the time series may
include sampling information obtained by an acoustic transducer in the
vicinity of the user and the step of processing the time series may
include determining that a user is currently inactive when the
information obtained by the acoustic transducer does not satisfy a
predetermined criterion. A progress of a game may be displayed upon a
screen, wherein the acoustic information is obtained by an acoustic
transducer located in a vicinity of the screen.

[0130]In some embodiments, a progress of a game may be displayed upon a
screen, wherein the acoustic information is obtained by an acoustic
transducer located in a vicinity of the screen, and the step of
processing the time series may include determining that a particular user
of the plurality of users is currently inactive when the information
obtained by the acoustic transducer does not satisfy a predetermined
criterion specific to the particular user.

[0131]In some embodiments, the predetermined criterion may include at
least one criterion selected from the group consisting of pitch, audio
pulse frequency, audio pulse shape, audio pulse duty cycle, beat
frequency, spectral signature including a spectral content characteristic
of a distinctive sound, spectral signature characteristic of a particular
user's voice, a time-varying signature characteristic of a string of one
or more phonemes concatenated together and recognizable through speech
recognition.

[0132]According to embodiments of the present invention, a video game
system and method of the type described above may be implemented as
depicted in FIG. 6. A video game system 600 may include a processor 601
and a memory 602 (e.g., RAM, DRAM, ROM, and the like). In addition, the
video game system 600 may have multiple processors 601 if parallel
processing is to be implemented. The memory 602 includes data and game
program code 604, which may include portions that are configured as
described above. Specifically, the memory 602 may include inertial signal
data 606 which may include stored controller path information as
described above. The memory 602 may also contain stored gesture data 608,
e.g., data representing one or more gestures relevant to the game program
604. Coded instructions executed on the processor 602 may implement a
multi-input mixer 605, which may be configured and function as described
above.

[0133]The system 600 may also include well-known support functions 610,
such as input/output (I/O) elements 611, power supplies (P/S) 612, a
clock (CLK) 613 and cache 614. The apparatus 600 may optionally include a
mass storage device 615 such as a disk drive, CD-ROM drive, tape drive,
or the like to store programs and/or data. The controller may also
optionally include a display unit 616 and user interface unit 618 to
facilitate interaction between the controller 600 and a user. The display
unit 616 may be in the form of a cathode ray tube (CRT) or flat panel
screen that displays text, numerals, graphical symbols or images. The
user interface 618 may include a keyboard, mouse, joystick, light pen or
other device. In addition, the user interface 618 may include a
microphone, video camera or other signal transducing device to provide
for direct capture of a signal to be analyzed. The processor 601, memory
602 and other components of the system 600 may exchange signals (e.g.,
code instructions and data) with each other via a system bus 620 as shown
in FIG. 6.

[0134]A microphone array 622 may be coupled to the system 600 through the
I/O functions 611. The microphone array may include between about 2 and
about 8 microphones, preferably about 4 microphones with neighboring
microphones separated by a distance of less than about 4 centimeters,
preferably between about 1 centimeter and about 2 centimeters.
Preferably, the microphones in the array 622 are omni-directional
microphones. An optional image capture unit 623 (e.g., a digital camera)
may be coupled to the apparatus 600 through the I/O functions 611. One or
more pointing actuators 625 that are mechanically coupled to the camera
may exchange signals with the processor 601 via the I/O functions 611.

[0135]As used herein, the term I/O generally refers to any program,
operation or device that transfers data to or from the system 600 and to
or from a peripheral device. Every data transfer may be regarded as an
output from one device and an input into another. Peripheral devices
include input-only devices, such as keyboards and mouses, output-only
devices, such as printers as well as devices such as a writable CD-ROM
that can act as both an input and an output device. The term "peripheral
device" includes external devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, printer,
monitor, microphone, game controller, camera, external Zip drive or
scanner as well as internal devices, such as a CD-ROM drive, CD-R drive
or internal modem or other peripheral such as a flash memory
reader/writer, hard drive.

[0136]In certain embodiments of the invention, the apparatus 600 may be a
video game unit, which may include a controller 630 coupled to the
processor via the I/O functions 611 either through wires (e.g., a USB
cable) or wirelessly. The controller 630 may have analog joystick
controls 631 and conventional buttons 633 that provide control signals
commonly used during playing of video games. Such video games may be
implemented as processor readable data and/or instructions from the
program 604 which may be stored in the memory 602 or other processor
readable medium such as one associated with the mass storage device 615.

[0137]The joystick controls 631 may generally be configured so that moving
a control stick left or right signals movement along the X axis, and
moving it forward (up) or back (down) signals movement along the Y axis.
In joysticks that are configured for three-dimensional movement, twisting
the stick left (counter-clockwise) or right (clockwise) may signal
movement along the Z axis. These three axis--X Y and Z--are often
referred to as roll, pitch, and yaw, respectively, particularly in
relation to an aircraft.

[0138]In addition to conventional features, the controller 630 may include
one or more inertial sensors 632, which may provide position and/or
orientation information to the processor 601 via an inertial signal.
Orientation information may include angular information such as a tilt,
roll or yaw of the controller 630. By way of example, the inertial
sensors 632 may include any number and/or combination of accelerometers,
gyroscopes or tilt sensors. In a preferred embodiment, the inertial
sensors 632 include tilt sensors adapted to sense orientation of the
joystick controller with respect to tilt and roll axes, a first
accelerometer adapted to sense acceleration along a yaw axis and a second
accelerometer adapted to sense angular acceleration with respect to the
yaw axis. An accelerometer may be implemented, e.g., as a MEMS device
including a mass mounted by one or more springs with sensors for sensing
displacement of the mass relative to one or more directions. Signals from
the sensors that are dependent on the displacement of the mass may be
used to determine an acceleration of the joystick controller 630. Such
techniques may be implemented by instructions from the game program 604
which may be stored in the memory 602 and executed by the processor 601.

[0139]By way of example an accelerometer suitable as the inertial sensor
632 may be a simple mass elastically coupled at three or four points to a
frame, e.g., by springs. Pitch and roll axes lie in a plane that
intersects the frame, which is mounted to the joystick controller 630. As
the frame (and the joystick controller 630) rotates about pitch and roll
axes the mass will displace under the influence of gravity and the
springs will elongate or compress in a way that depends on the angle of
pitch and/or roll. The displacement and of the mass can be sensed and
converted to a signal that is dependent on the amount of pitch and/or
roll. Angular acceleration about the yaw axis or linear acceleration
along the yaw axis may also produce characteristic patterns of
compression and/or elongation of the springs or motion of the mass that
can be sensed and converted to signals that are dependent on the amount
of angular or linear acceleration. Such an accelerometer device can
measure tilt, roll angular acceleration about the yaw axis and linear
acceleration along the yaw axis by tracking movement of the mass or
compression and expansion forces of the springs. There are a number of
different ways to track the position of the mass and/or or the forces
exerted on it, including resistive strain gauge material, photonic
sensors, magnetic sensors, hall-effect devices, piezoelectric devices,
capacitive sensors, and the like.

[0140]In addition, the joystick controller 630 may include one or more
light sources 634, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs). The light
sources 634 may be used to distinguish one controller from the other. For
example one or more LEDs can accomplish this by flashing or holding an
LED pattern code. By way of example, 5 LEDs can be provided on the
joystick controller 630 in a linear or two-dimensional pattern. Although
a linear array of LEDs is preferred, the LEDs may alternatively, be
arranged in a rectangular pattern or an arcuate pattern to facilitate
determination of an image plane of the LED array when analyzing an image
of the LED pattern obtained by the image capture unit 623. Furthermore,
the LED pattern codes may also be used to determine the positioning of
the joystick controller 630 during game play. For instance, the LEDs can
assist in identifying tilt, yaw and roll of the controllers. This
detection pattern can assist in providing a better user/feel in games,
such as aircraft flying games, etc. The image capture unit 623 may
capture images containing the joystick controller 630 and light sources
634. Analysis of such images can determine the location and/or
orientation of the joystick controller. Such analysis may be implemented
by program code instructions 604 stored in the memory 602 and executed by
the processor 601. To facilitate capture of images of the light sources
634 by the image capture unit 623, the light sources 634 may be placed on
two or more different sides of the joystick controller 630, e.g., on the
front and on the back (as shown in phantom). Such placement allows the
image capture unit 623 to obtain images of the light sources 634 for
different orientations of the joystick controller 630 depending on how
the joystick controller 630 is held by a user.

[0141]In addition the light sources 634 may provide telemetry signals to
the processor 601, e.g., in pulse code, amplitude modulation or frequency
modulation format. Such telemetry signals may indicate which joystick
buttons are being pressed and/or how hard such buttons are being pressed.
Telemetry signals may be encoded into the optical signal, e.g., by pulse
coding, pulse width modulation, frequency modulation or light intensity
(amplitude) modulation. The processor 601 may decode the telemetry signal
from the optical signal and execute a game command in response to the
decoded telemetry signal. Telemetry signals may be decoded from analysis
of images of the joystick controller 630 obtained by the image capture
unit 623. Alternatively, the apparatus 601 may include a separate optical
sensor dedicated to receiving telemetry signals from the lights sources
634. The use of LEDs in conjunction with determining an intensity amount
in interfacing with a computer program is described, e.g., in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/429,414, to Richard L. Marks et al., entitled
"USE OF COMPUTER IMAGE AND AUDIO PROCESSING IN DETERMINING AN INTENSITY
AMOUNT WHEN INTERFACING WITH A COMPUTER PROGRAM" (Attorney Docket No.
SONYP052), filed May 4, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference
in its entirety. In addition, analysis of images containing the light
sources 634 may be used for both telemetry and determining the position
and/or orientation of the joystick controller 630. Such techniques may be
implemented by instructions of the program 604 which may be stored in the
memory 602 and executed by the processor 601.

[0142]The processor 601 may use the inertial signals from the inertial
sensor 632 in conjunction with optical signals from light sources 634
detected by the image capture unit 623 and/or sound source location and
characterization information from acoustic signals detected by the
microphone array 622 to deduce information on the location and/or
orientation of the controller 630 and/or its user. For example, "acoustic
radar" sound source location and characterization may be used in
conjunction with the microphone array 622 to track a moving voice while
motion of the joystick controller is independently tracked (through the
inertial sensor 632 and or light sources 634). In acoustic radar select a
pre-calibrated listening zone is selected at runtime and sounds
originating from sources outside the pre-calibrated listening zone are
filtered out. The pre-calibrated listening zones may include a listening
zone that corresponds to a volume of focus or field of view of the image
capture unit 623. Examples of acoustic radar are described in detail in
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,724, to Xiadong Mao entitled
"METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR TARGETED SOUND DETECTION AND
CHARACTERIZATION", filed May 4, 2006, which is incorporated herein by
reference. Any number of different combinations of different modes of
providing control signals to the processor 601 may be used in conjunction
with embodiments of the present invention. Such techniques may be
implemented by program code instructions 604 which may be stored in the
memory 602 and executed by the processor 601 and may optionally include
one or more instructions that direct the one or more processors to select
a pre-calibrated listening zone at runtime and filter out sounds
originating from sources outside the pre-calibrated listening zone. The
pre-calibrated listening zones may include a listening zone that
corresponds to a volume of focus or field of view of the image capture
unit 623.

[0143]The program 604 may optionally include one or more instructions that
direct the one or more processors to produce a discrete time domain input
signal xm(t) from microphones M0 . . . MM, of the
microphone array 622, determine a listening sector, and use the listening
sector in a semi-blind source separation to select the finite impulse
response filter coefficients to separate out different sound sources from
input signal xm(t). The program 604 may also include instructions to
apply one or more fractional delays to selected input signals xm(t)
other than an input signal x0(t) from a reference microphone
M0. Each fractional delay may be selected to optimize a signal to
noise ratio of a discrete time domain output signal y(t) from the
microphone array. The fractional delays may be selected to such that a
signal from the reference microphone M0 is first in time relative to
signals from the other microphone(s) of the array. The program 604 may
also include instructions to introduce a fractional time delay A into an
output signal y(t) of the microphone array so that:
y(t+Δ)=x(t+Δ)*b0+x(t-1+Δ)*b1+x(t-2+Δ)*b-
2+ . . . +x(t-N+Δ)bN, where Δ is between zero and
±1. Examples of such techniques are described in detail in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/381,729, to Xiadong Mao, entitled "ULTRA SMALL
MICROPHONE ARRAY" filed May 4, 2006, the entire disclosures of which are
incorporated by reference.

[0144]The program 604 may include one or more instructions which, when
executed, cause the system 600 to select a pre-calibrated listening
sector that contains a source of sound. Such instructions may cause the
apparatus to determine whether a source of sound lies within an initial
sector or on a particular side of the initial sector. If the source of
sound does not lie within the default sector, the instructions may, when
executed, select a different sector on the particular side of the default
sector. The different sector may be characterized by an attenuation of
the input signals that is closest to an optimum value. These instructions
may, when executed, calculate an attenuation of input signals from the
microphone array 622 and the attenuation to an optimum value. The
instructions may, when executed, cause the apparatus 600 to determine a
value of an attenuation of the input signals for one or more sectors and
select a sector for which the attenuation is closest to an optimum value.
Examples of such a technique are described, e.g., in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/381,725, to Xiadong Mao, entitled "METHODS AND
APPARATUS FOR TARGETED SOUND DETECTION" filed May 4, 2006, the
disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0145]Signals from the inertial sensor 632 may provide part of a tracking
information input and signals generated from the image capture unit 623
from tracking the one or more light sources 634 may provide another part
of the tracking information input. By way of example, and without
limitation, such "mixed mode" signals may be used in a football type
video game in which a Quarterback pitches the ball to the right after a
head fake head movement to the left. Specifically, a game player holding
the controller 630 may turn his head to the left and make a sound while
making a pitch movement swinging the controller out to the right like it
was the football. The microphone array 620 in conjunction with "acoustic
radar" program code can track the user's voice. The image capture unit
623 can track the motion of the user's head or track other commands that
do not require sound or use of the controller. The sensor 632 may track
the motion of the joystick controller (representing the football). The
image capture unit 623 may also track the light sources 634 on the
controller 630. The user may release of the "ball" upon reaching a
certain amount and/or direction of acceleration of the joystick
controller 630 or upon a key command triggered by pressing a button on
the controller 630.

[0146]In certain embodiments of the present invention, an inertial signal,
e.g., from an accelerometer or gyroscope may be used to determine a
location of the controller 630. Specifically, an acceleration signal from
an accelerometer may be integrated once with respect to time to determine
a change in velocity and the velocity may be integrated with respect to
time to determine a change in position. If values of the initial position
and velocity at some time are known then the absolute position may be
determined using these values and the changes in velocity and position.
Although position determination using an inertial sensor may be made more
quickly than using the image capture unit 623 and light sources 634 the
inertial sensor 632 may be subject to a type of error known as "drift" in
which errors that accumulate over time can lead to a discrepancy D
between the position of the joystick 630 calculated from the inertial
signal (shown in phantom) and the actual position of the joystick
controller 630. Embodiments of the present invention allow a number of
ways to deal with such errors.

[0147]For example, the drift may be cancelled out manually by re-setting
the initial position of the controller 630 to be equal to the current
calculated position. A user may use one or more of the buttons on the
controller 630 to trigger a command to re-set the initial position.
Alternatively, image-based drift may be implemented by re-setting the
current position to a position determined from an image obtained from the
image capture unit 623 as a reference. Such image-based drift
compensation may be implemented manually, e.g., when the user triggers
one or more of the buttons on the joystick controller 630. Alternatively,
image-based drift compensation may be implemented automatically, e.g., at
regular intervals of time or in response to game play. Such techniques
may be implemented by program code instructions 604 which may be stored
in the memory 602 and executed by the processor 601.

[0148]In certain embodiments it may be desirable to compensate for
spurious data in the inertial sensor signal. For example the signal from
the inertial sensor 632 may be oversampled and a sliding average may be
computed from the oversampled signal to remove spurious data from the
inertial sensor signal. In some situations it may be desirable to
oversample the signal and reject a high and/or low value from some subset
of data points and compute the sliding average from the remaining data
points. Furthermore, other data sampling and manipulation techniques may
be used to adjust the signal from the inertial sensor to remove or reduce
the significance of spurious data. The choice of technique may depend on
the nature of the signal, computations to be performed with the signal,
the nature of game play or some combination of two or more of these. Such
techniques may be implemented by instructions of the program 604 which
may be stored in the memory 602 and executed by the processor 601.

[0149]The processor 601 may perform analysis of inertial signal data 606
as described above in response to the data 606 and program code
instructions of a program 604 stored and retrieved by the memory 602 and
executed by the processor module 601. Code portions of the program 604
may conform to any one of a number of different programming languages
such as Assembly, C++, JAVA or a number of other languages. The processor
module 601 forms a general-purpose computer that becomes a specific
purpose computer when executing programs such as the program code 604.
Although the program code 604 is described herein as being implemented in
software and executed upon a general purpose computer, those skilled in
the art will realize that the method of task management could
alternatively be implemented using hardware such as an application
specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or other hardware circuitry. As such,
it should be understood that embodiments of the invention can be
implemented, in whole or in part, in software, hardware or some
combination of both.

[0150]In one embodiment, among others, the program code 604 may include a
set of processor readable instructions that implement a method having
features in common with the method 510 of FIG. 5B and the method 520 of
FIG. 5C or some combination of two or more of these. The program code 604
may generally include one or more instructions that direct the one or
more processors to analyze signals from the inertial sensor 632 to
generate position and/or orientation information and utilize the
information during play of a video game.

[0151]The program code 604 may optionally include processor executable
instructions including one or more instructions which, when executed
cause the image capture unit 623 to monitor a field of view in front of
the image capture unit 623, identify one or more of the light sources 634
within the field of view, detect a change in light emitted from the light
source(s) 634; and in response to detecting the change, triggering an
input command to the processor 601. The use of LEDs in conjunction with
an image capture device to trigger actions in a game controller is
described e.g., in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/759,782 to Richard
L. Marks, filed Jan. 16, 2004 and entitled: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
LIGHT INPUT DEVICE, which is incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety.

[0152]The program code 604 may optionally include processor executable
instructions including one or more instructions which, when executed, use
signals from the inertial sensor and signals generated from the image
capture unit from tracking the one or more light sources as inputs to a
game system, e.g., as described above. The program code 604 may
optionally include processor executable instructions including one or
more instructions which, when executed compensate for drift in the
inertial sensor 632.

[0153]Although embodiments of the present invention are described in terms
of examples related to a video game controller 630 games, embodiments of
the invention, including the system 600 may be used on any user
manipulated body, molded object, knob, structure, etc, with inertial
sensing capability and inertial sensor signal transmission capability,
wireless or otherwise.

[0154]By way of example, embodiments of the present invention may be
implemented on parallel processing systems. Such parallel processing
systems typically include two or more processor elements that are
configured to execute parts of a program in parallel using separate
processors. By way of example, and without limitation, FIG. 7 illustrates
a type of cell processor 700 according to an embodiment of the present
invention. The cell processor 700 may be used as the processor 601 of
FIG. 6 or the processor 502 of FIG. 5A. In the example depicted in FIG.
7, the cell processor 700 includes a main memory 702, power processor
element (PPE) 704, and a number of synergistic processor elements (SPEs)
706. In the example depicted in FIG. 7, the cell processor 700 includes a
single PPE 704 and eight SPE 706. In such a configuration, seven of the
SPE 706 may be used for parallel processing and one may be reserved as a
back-up in case one of the other seven fails. A cell processor may
alternatively include multiple groups of PPEs (PPE groups) and multiple
groups of SPEs (SPE groups). In such a case, hardware resources can be
shared between units within a group. However, the SPEs and PPEs must
appear to software as independent elements. As such, embodiments of the
present invention are not limited to use with the configuration shown in
FIG. 7.

[0155]The main memory 702 typically includes both general-purpose and
nonvolatile storage, as well as special-purpose hardware registers or
arrays used for functions such as system configuration, data-transfer
synchronization, memory-mapped I/O, and I/O subsystems. In embodiments of
the present invention, a video game program 703 may be resident in main
memory 702. The video program 703 may include inertial, image and
acoustic analyzers and a mixer configured as described with respect to
FIG. 4, 5A, 5B or 5C above or some combination of these. The program 703
may run on the PPE. The program 703 may be divided up into multiple
signal processing tasks that can be executed on the SPEs and/or PPE.

[0156]By way of example, the PPE 704 may be a 64-bit PowerPC Processor
Unit (PPU) with associated caches L1 and L2. The PPE 704 is a
general-purpose processing unit, which can access system management
resources (such as the memory-protection tables, for example). Hardware
resources may be mapped explicitly to a real address space as seen by the
PPE.

[0157]Therefore, the PPE can address any of these resources directly by
using an appropriate effective address value. A primary function of the
PPE 704 is the management and allocation of tasks for the SPEs 706 in the
cell processor 700.

[0158]Although only a single PPE is shown in FIG. 7, some cell processor
implementations, such as cell broadband engine architecture (CBEA), the
cell processor 700 may have multiple PPEs organized into PPE groups, of
which there may be more than one. These PPE groups may share access to
the main memory 702. Furthermore the cell processor 700 may include two
or more groups SPEs. The SPE groups may also share access to the main
memory 702. Such configurations are within the scope of the present
invention.

[0159]Each SPE 706 is includes a synergistic processor unit (SPU) and its
own local storage area LS. The local storage LS may include one or more
separate areas of memory storage, each one associated with a specific
SPU. Each SPU may be configured to only execute instructions (including
data load and data store operations) from within its own associated local
storage domain. In such a configuration, data transfers between the local
storage LS and elsewhere in the system 700 may be performed by issuing
direct memory access (DMA) commands from the memory flow controller (MFC)
to transfer data to or from the local storage domain (of the individual
SPE). The SPUs are less complex computational units than the PPE 704 in
that they do not perform any system management functions. The SPU
generally have a single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) capability and
typically process data and initiate any required data transfers (subject
to access properties set up by the PPE) in order to perform their
allocated tasks. The purpose of the SPU is to enable applications that
require a higher computational unit density and can effectively use the
provided instruction set. A significant number of SPEs in a system
managed by the PPE 704 allow for cost-effective processing over a wide
range of applications.

[0160]Each SPE 706 may include a dedicated memory flow controller (MFC)
that includes an associated memory management unit that can hold and
process memory-protection and access-permission information. The MFC
provides the primary method for data transfer, protection, and
synchronization between main storage of the cell processor and the local
storage of an SPE. An MFC command describes the transfer to be performed.
Commands for transferring data are sometimes referred to as MFC direct
memory access (DMA) commands (or MFC DMA commands).

[0161]Each MFC may support multiple DMA transfers at the same time and can
maintain and process multiple MFC commands. Each MFC DMA data transfer
command request may involve both a local storage address (LSA) and an
effective address (EA). The local storage address may directly address
only the local storage area of its associated SPE. The effective address
may have a more general application, e.g., it may be able to reference
main storage, including all the SPE local storage areas, if they are
aliased into the real address space.

[0162]To facilitate communication between the SPEs 706 and/or between the
SPEs 706 and the PPE 704, the SPEs 706 and PPE 704 may include signal
notification registers that are tied to signaling events. The PPE 704 and
SPEs 706 may be coupled by a star topology in which the PPE 704 acts as a
router to transmit messages to the SPEs 706. Alternatively, each SPE 706
and the PPE 704 may have a one-way signal notification register referred
to as a mailbox. The mailbox can be used by an SPE 706 to host operating
system (OS) synchronization.

[0163]The cell processor 700 may include an input/output (I/O) function
708 through which the cell processor 700 may interface with peripheral
devices, such as a microphone array 712 and optional image capture unit
713 and a game controller 730. The game controller unit may include an
inertial sensor 732, and light sources 734. In addition an Element
Interconnect Bus 710 may connect the various components listed above.
Each SPE and the PPE can access the bus 710 through a bus interface units
BIU. The cell processor 700 may also includes two controllers typically
found in a processor: a Memory Interface Controller MIC that controls the
flow of data between the bus 710 and the main memory 702, and a Bus
Interface Controller BIC, which controls the flow of data between the I/O
708 and the bus 710. Although the requirements for the MIC, BIC, BIUs and
bus 710 may vary widely for different implementations, those of skill in
the art will be familiar their functions and circuits for implementing
them.

[0164]The cell processor 700 may also include an internal interrupt
controller IIC. The IIC component manages the priority of the interrupts
presented to the PPE. The IIC allows interrupts from the other components
the cell processor 700 to be handled without using a main system
interrupt controller. The IIC may be regarded as a second level
controller. The main system interrupt controller may handle interrupts
originating external to the cell processor.

[0165]In embodiments of the present invention, certain computations, such
as the fractional delays described above, may be performed in parallel
using the PPE 704 and/or one or more of the SPE 706. Each fractional
delay calculation may be run as one or more separate tasks that different
SPE 706 may take as they become available.

[0166]While the above is a complete description of the preferred
embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to use various
alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the
present invention should be determined not with reference to the above
description but should, instead, be determined with reference to the
appended claims, along with their full scope of equivalents. Any feature
described herein, whether preferred or not, may be combined with any
other feature described herein, whether preferred or not. In the claims
that follow, the indefinite article "A", or "An" refers to a quantity of
one or more of the item following the article, except where expressly
stated otherwise. The appended claims are not to be interpreted as
including means-plus-function limitations, unless such a limitation is
explicitly recited in a given claim using the phrase "means for."